


Agents

by SailorChibi



Series: west coast avengers [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Play, Baby Tony Stark, Bruce Banner gets partially redeemed, Crying, Cuddling, Diapers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Infantilism, Not Clint Barton Friendly, Not Natasha Romanov Friendly, Not Phil Coulson Friendly, Pacifiers, Pepper Potts has had it with SHIELD, Pepper and Rhodey find out about the age play, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Pepper Potts, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, bottles, daddy Steve Rogers, daddy bucky barnes, everyone should protect Tony Stark, ignores civil war and AOU, natasha romanov does not give up, non sexual age play, non sexual infantilism, not overly shield friendly to be honest, tony stark has insecurity issues, tony stark tries really hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22946899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: No one at SHIELD goes down easily, least of all Agents Romanov and Barton. What those two don't know is that they've met their match in Pepper and Rhodey.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark
Series: west coast avengers [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/543094
Comments: 107
Kudos: 883





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Part 4 of the west coast avengers, with more Pepper and Rhodey!

“I’m just saying, Ms. Potts, we have some concerns.”

“I understand what you’re saying,” Pepper said very calmly, hoping that the twitch that was developing in her left eye wasn’t apparent. She understood why Stark Industries had a Board of Directors. Most days, she was even willing to agree that the Board was a good thing. But then there were days like this, when she was sorely tempted to throw her hands up and tell them all how goddamn stupid they were being, that she wished Tony was all she had to worry about when it came to Stark Industries.

“Then you realize that it’s not realistic for Mr. Stark to stay in Malibu. It’s in the best interests of the company if he moves back to New York,” one of the men said, and the others all noded in agreement. 

Pepper forbid herself from closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose the way she wanted to. The only reason the Board wanted Tony back in New York was because they thought Tony was more easily controlled if he was closer in proximity. Well, that and the fact that the whole city was apprehensive without Iron Man around. He had only been gone a few days, but it was enough for people to get antsy.

The urge to tell them all off for thinking that they had a say in where Tony lived was almost overwhelming, but she refrained. It would only make waves, and besides she wasn’t sure what Tony was planning long-term. He was in Malibu – for now. But later…? Now that Barton, Romanov, Coulson and Banner were out of the tower, maybe Tony would change his mind? As much as he loved the house in Malibu, he’d seemed so happy in New York…

“I will pass your concerns along to Mr. Stark,” she said at last. “I’m sure he will take them under consideration.”

“There’s no chance that we can speak to him?” another man asked.

“No,” Pepper said immediately. “Mr. Stark has asked that he not be disturbed unless it’s an emergency. And I’m afraid, gentlemen, that this does not qualify as such.” She offered them all a frosty smile.

Naturally none of them were very happy to hear that, not that Pepper cared. Stark Industries would be perfectly fine no matter where Tony lived; his genius and great feats of invention were not limited by area, and besides that Tony was always willing to hop on a plane – or into the armor, as the case may be – and come down to a meeting in person. While she would personally prefer that Tony was New York too, she was not going to force Tony’s hand. For once in his life, Tony deserved to think about himself first.

She was contemplating how best to express that sentiment to the Board when there was a gentle rap on the door. Her assistant, a young, seemingly meek woman by the name of Alicia, poked her head in and made pointed eye contact with Pepper. Responding to the unspoken summons, Pepper stood up and made her way out of the room. She wasn’t even sure the Board, so wrapped up in their petty tantrum, noticed her going.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Alicia said as soon as the door was closed.

“It’s fine. Believe me, I could use a break.” Pepper sighed and rubbed at her temples. “What’s up?”

“I have a Dr. Bruce Banner on the line for you. He said it was quite urgent,” Alicia said.

Pepper’s eyebrows furrowed. “Bruce Banner?” she repeated blankly. She hadn’t seen Banner since she’d had him and the others evicted from the tower. Coulson, Romanov and Barton had gone running back to SHIELD of course, but she wasn’t sure about Banner.

Alicia nodded. “I tried to ask if he’d like to leave a message, but he said that it was about Mr. Stark and that it was imperative he talk to you.”

“About Tony…” Pepper frowned, considering her options. One of the first things she’d done was remove Banner, Coulson, Romanov and Barton from the green list, meaning they couldn’t easily contact Tony or Pepper. That Banner had persisted, and managed to get through to Pepper’s P.A., suggested that he wasn’t going to give up. The question was, did he have information that would help in some way or was this just a pathetic attempt to curry Pepper’s favor? If it was the latter, she was going to have _words_ for him.

“He implied that it could be life or death,” Alicia added, and that was Pepper’s deciding factor. 

“Alright, this meeting has just about wrapped up anyway. Would you mind giving my apologies to the Board and telling them that I had something urgent come up?”

“Not at all,” Alicia said with a distinct smirk. Pepper smiled back and gratefully walked away from the boardroom.

She made her walk back to her office, where she shut the door and took a moment to stand there with her eyes shut. Normally this would've been the time where she was mentally tabulating how much Tony was going to owe her for dealing with all of this, but this time Tony wasn't responsible for what had happened. In fact, from what she'd heard, Tony had done everything he could to mitigate the fall-out. The blame for this rested solely with SHIELD for thinking that they could remove themselves from the situation as soon as things went south. 

Yes, that was just like them, wasn't it? Pepper had always known that Fury only wanted Tony in so far as Tony could be useful to him. She would send the bill for a new pair of shoes to him, she decided. JARVIS could help her do that. It wouldn't solve things entirely, but it would sure as hell make Pepper feel a lot better to spend some money on SHIELD's dime. And she would do it as soon as she hung up from this conversation with Bruce, after which she was definitely going to need some stress relief. She sighed and walked over to her desk.

Hitting the buttons for both the appropriate line and the speaker phone, Pepper said briskly, "Good afternoon, you've reached Pepper Potts."

"Pepper!" Bruce's voice came through clearly. "Are you alone?"

Pepper raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I am. I hope you're going to make this good, Dr. Banner. I have a lot of things to do now that Tony is in Malibu." 

There was a slight pause during which Pepper smirked to herself. Anyone would've picked up on her very obvious dig about Tony no longer being in New York. But Bruce was smart enough to make note of the fact that she had deliberately used his last name.

"I know I shouldn't be called you. You made it quite clear you didn't want to hear from any of us," Bruce said, sounding considerably more subdued now. "And I wouldn't have called, but - but I'm worried about Tony."

"It's a little late for that, don't you think?" Pepper said coolly, shuffling through some papers.

"I think Natasha, Clint and Coulson are planning something," Bruce blurted out.

"What do you mean?" Pepper demanded, dropping the papers. 

"I overheard them talking - Natasha and Clint, I mean. Coulson wasn't around, I guess. But Natasha said something about making Tony see sense, and then Clint said that Tony had always been too gullible for his own good." To his credit, Bruce sounded pissed off. "Then I swear I heard Natasha say she was going to talk to Tony in person, but I must have made a noise or something because they realized I was there and stopped talking."

"When was that?" Pepper said.

"Yesterday."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she hissed.

"I tried," Bruce said, very quietly. "I've been trying to get through for the past day. No one is taking my calls - not you, not Tony, not JARVIS, not even Bucky or Steve. I hated threatening your assistant, but I was desperate."

Pepper blinked - Alicia hadn't made any mention of a threat, and that was something Pepper would have to follow up on later - before picking up the phone. She put the handle to her ear and asked, "Is Natasha there right now?"

"We haven't been staying together. They're at SHIELD." Bruce did not mention where he had been. "I was just there to see Fury. I know that both she and Clint are really mad. They don't feel like they did anything wrong. That's why I'm worried. Natasha's always been kind of weird when it comes to Tony. I don't - I don't want to hurt Tony anymore than we already have."

Where had that attitude been back when Tony was struggling with two child supersoldiers? Pepper bit her tongue, knowing now wasn't the time, and said, "Okay. Thank you for telling me Bruce. The mansion in Malibu is pretty well locked down, but I'll contact Steve and let him know that Natasha might be on her way." Or she could be there already, depending on if Natasha had borrowed a SHIELD jet. The thought made Pepper's pulse quicken. Bucky had told her that Tony wasn't in a very good frame of mind right now and seeing Natasha would not help.

"Good," Bruce said with obvious relief. "I thought about going to Fury, but I wasn't sure how he'd handle this."

"Right," Pepper murmured. She wasn't sure of that either. Sometimes it seemed like Fury could be on their side, and then sometimes it was blatantly obvious that he wasn't. She suspected that it would probably come down to whether Fury thought Natasha could successfully suck up enough to Tony to get back into Tony's good graces, and that didn't exactly sit well with her.

“If I can help –” Bruce began hesitantly.

“I’ll let you know. Goodbye,” Pepper said. It was rude as hell, but she hung up without waiting for him to respond. She wasn’t sure how she felt towards Bruce now: on the one hand, Bruce was giving her a heads up. On the other hand, Bruce had also ignored Tony when Tony asked for help. But Bruce had also been doing more than the SHIELD agents, because at least he’d looked for a cure…

Her phone rang again and Pepper sighed with annoyance. She wasn’t sure how, but people always seemed to have a sixth sense for when she was in her office. Briefly, she contemplated not answering as she took out her cell and fired off a quick text to JARVIS. But the phone continued to ring – clearly whoever it was, they were determined – and eventually she picked up.

“Pepper, it’s me. Tony’s in trouble!” Rhodey’s voice was too loud in her ears. Pepper froze.

“What – how do you know?!” she asked in astonishment. Had Bruce managed to get through to Rhodey too?

“JARVIS got a message through. He was being shut down,” Rhodey said frantically. 

Pepper’s heart started to pound, but she tried to keep calm. “Okay, well, Steve and Bucky are there too. They’ll keep Tony safe,” she said, already rising to her feet.

“That’s the problem. Steve and Bucky aren’t at the mansion. Tony texted me earlier today and said they were both meeting with SHIELD today,” Rhodey said, now sound grim. 

“Shit,” Pepper breathed. The timing was too coincidental – either Fury was in on it, or Barton and Romanov had known that Fury would be meeting with Steve and Bucky and were acting now for that reason. Either way, that meant Tony was alone at the mansion with at least one SHIELD agent trying to get at him.

And while she believed Tony was perfectly capable of caring for himself, particularly as Iron Man, there was no question that Tony was compromised by the old members of his team. She knew Tony well enough to know that Tony would hesitate to attack Romanov and Barton even if they were presenting as a threat, but she suspected that Barton and Romanov didn’t have that problem. There was no way in which this scenario ended well. 

“Meet me at the airport. We’ll take the jet,” Pepper said, grabbing her purse.

“Got it,” Rhodey said. He hung up.

Pepper rushed to the door, one thought hammering through her mind: _please_ don’t let them be too late.


	2. Chapter 2

Rhodey spent the trip to Malibu worrying, but Pepper was outright fretting. There was no one she could call; Tony had plenty of professional contacts in Malibu, but no one who would be willing to go check up on him in this situation – and no one that Tony would _want_ checking up on him anyway. The last thing Rhodey wanted to do was make an already bad situation worse.

After talking it over at length, Pepper did call the police and advise them that there was a potential intruder to the mansion. But they both knew that it would take time for the police to mobilize the appropriate response. She was upfront about the fact that it was two SHIELD agents, which meant the police would be in contact with Fury first, but Pepper felt it was only fair to warn them and Rhodey, albeit grudgingly, agreed.

After all, Natasha and Clint weren’t your average burglars. Pepper seemed to think that the two of them wouldn’t do anything untoward when it came to innocent civilians, but Rhodey had his doubts. He was pretty sure that people like Natasha and Clint had differing opinions about what constituted an innocent civilian. That sort of thing had never mattered when it came to Tony.

“Are you sure that the armor couldn’t get you there faster?” Pepper asked for what must have been the fifth time. Rhodey sighed but answered her as patiently as he had the last time she’d asked.

“No, Pep. Tony was planning to do a speed upgrade, but then he got distracted by that thing that happened in Delaware. Remember?”

She wrinkled her nose in response. Oh yeah, she remembered.

“He still plans to do it, but there just hasn’t been enough time. And now this…” Rhodey sighed and fidgeted, unable to keep still. “The jet is the fastest way for us to get there. We should be landing soon.” He was trying to sound optimistic but could tell from the look on Pepper’s face that it was falling flat and for good reason. He was every bit as worried as Pepper about what they might find.

JARVIS wasn’t answering because he’d been shut down. Any messages or calls to Steve’s and Bucky’s phones went unanswered, so either their cell phones had been compromised or something had happened to the two of them – Pepper was dearly hoping for the former. Tony had come to rely on Steve and Bucky more than Tony Stark had ever relied on anything or anyone before. Losing either one of them would destroy Tony.

As for Tony’s phone, he wasn’t responding to calls or answering texts either. Now, Tony did have the somewhat annoying tendency to leave his phone all over the place when he was at home because JARVIS was a zillion times better than a cell phone. So Rhodey was hoping that Tony had just left his phone somewhere and couldn’t hear it, rather than already in trouble.

“It’s okay. He’ll be fine,” Pepper said, attempting to force some levity into her voice. “It’s Tony. He always lands on his feet.”

“Right,” Rhodey said quietly. He could think of at least a dozen situations over the years where Tony had come out worse for the wear, but he wasn’t about to admit that to Pepper when she was already working her way into a frenzy. And right now… he thought again about the phone call he’d with Tony. Brief though it had been, this whole thing had already made Tony question his relationship with Steve and Bucky. That alone was damage, and potentially catastrophic damage at that. He had hopes that Steve and Bucky would be able to react appropriately, but they needed to know what was going on to be able to do that.

He breathed a quiet sigh of relief the plane touched down. The instant it stopped, they were both on their feet and rushing to the door. Pepper paused long enough to say a word of gratitude to the pilot, but Rhodey hurried down the steps and over to the car that she had requested be waiting for them. He got in behind the wheel and had the car on and ready to go by the time Pepper joined him.

It might have been a while since Rhodey had been to the Malibu mansion, but he still remembered the way with perfect clarity. He sped the whole way, and for once Pepper said nothing about it. Her hands were fisted in her lap so tightly that they were turning white from the pressure. Rhodey was pretty sure he spent the whole car trip grinding his teeth, which his dentist would no doubt later rip into him for.

They both breathed sighs of relief when they crested the hill that led to the mansion and saw flashing lights out front. Pepper actually leaned back and put a shaking hand over her heart. Rhodey was pretty sure he heard her mutter something about the price of stress, but he was too busy stopping the car and leaping out to really bother listening. Pepper swiftly joined him, and they rushed over to the crowd of officers.

Pepper strode up to the one who seemed to be in charge and declared, “I’m Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. I’m the one who called you in. What’s going on?”

“Hello, Ms. Potts. I’m Detective Brown,” the man said, offering a hand to shake. “We did catch two people attempting to break in. We have them in custody right now, but they refuse to speak to us. If you could identify them, that would go a long way towards moving things along.”

“Absolutely,” Pepper said.

“Where’s Tony?” Rhodey interjected.

“I’m afraid we haven’t been able to make contact with Mr. Stark. No one has answered the door,” Detective Brown said. “And we don’t have due cause to enter.”

“I’ll check on Tony,” Rhodey said, exchanging a look with Pepper. It was probably for the best that the police hadn’t tried to get in. It was entirely possible that Tony was in the suit somewhere, laying in wait. Tony would’ve never hurt an innocent person on purpose, but mistakes could and did happen. 

Pepper looked, for a moment, like she wanted to argue, but conceded quickly with a nod. “Let me know what you find,” she pleaded quietly.

Rhodey nodded at her and made his way through the crowd. Naturally, a police presence had also attracted some curious on-lookers and a bunch of paparazzi. Cameras flashed as he walked up to the front door and carefully, using his body to block the view of anyone trying to get too close, input his code. The knob clicked under his hand. He couldn’t decide if that was good or not. He was in, but the house wasn’t in lockdown which wasn’t great.

“Tones?” he called out, eyes flicking around quickly. The first floor was in darkness, but that didn’t mean much. Tony had a bad habit of ignoring the world around him when he was working. Hours could pass by without Tony eating, phone calls and texts would go unanswered, and night could fall without lights being turned on. Particularly since JARVIS was offline.

He walked further into the house, keeping a close eye out. He wouldn’t have put it past Natasha and Clint to have brought reinforcements. But everything looked okay. Nothing was out of place – until he got to the living room. This was clearly where _someone_ had been, but Rhodey wasn’t sure who that someone was. He stared, eyebrows furrowed, at the big blanket on the floor in front of the couch. The blanket wasn’t the confusing part, though. The big brown teddy bear tossed on the couch was.

“A teddy bear?” Rhodey muttered under his breath, stepping closer to the couch. The television was on, though it was muted. He glanced at the screen and realized that cartoons were playing. Little kid cartoons at that, judging from the bright colors and boxy characters. He turned back to the couch and bent down to pick up the blanket. Something blue fell from it.

Rhodey crouched to pick up whatever it was automatically but paused when he realized that he was staring at a pacifier. His hand stopped a couple inches above the pacifier as he tried to work out why a pacifier would be inside Tony’s Malibu house. Maybe Tony wasn’t here after all? But this was where he’d told Rhodey he was, and Tony wouldn’t lie about that. Had a squatter broken in? Had Tony invited someone with a child home with him?

That last thought made Rhodey wince, and a surge of guilt flashed through him. Tony would never do that. He was in a very happy and very committed relationship with two men that he loved more than anything else in the world. There was no way Tony would ever cheat on them. He felt like a terrible friend for even allowing the thought to cross his mind.

Unless… Rhodey exhaled, hand still hovering over the pacifier. Unless the real reason they couldn’t get a hold of Steve and Bucky was that they’d left Tony, and Tony had gone out to find some sex to make himself feel better. It was unlikely, but honestly Rhodey would almost prefer that over Tony drinking himself into oblivion to forget. Still, it didn’t exactly lessen his worry.

He grabbed the pacifier and stood up, only then realizing a flaw in his thought process. The pacifier was bigger than he would have expected, and it had clearly been well used judging from the bite marks on it. But when he examined the nipple, he knew there was no way it would fit into a baby’s mouth. It looked more like it was sized for an _adult’s_ mouth. But that couldn’t be right. Could it?

“Tony?” Rhodey called again, looking around. He tucked the pacifier into his pocket and set off into the mansion. He did a quick scour of the first floor before heading up the stairs to the second floor, where the bedrooms were.

He headed first for the bedroom that Tony had always slept in before, but it was empty and frankly looked like it hadn’t been touched in a while. Rhodey backtracked and tried another room. This one was obviously lived-in; there were clothes strewn all over the floor. Supersoldier-sized clothes. Steve was a neat freak, so Bucky and Steve had to have left in a hurry, Rhodey deduced. If they were at a meeting with Fury, they hadn’t anticipated it.

Still, there was no sign of Tony. Growing frustrated now, he grabbed his phone and tried Tony’s number. He listened hard and breathed a sigh of relief when he actually heard a faint ringing. Hoping that wherever Tony’s phone, it was with Tony, he left the bedroom and followed the sound down the hall. There was another door just down the hall, which if Rhodey remembered correctly was used as storage. He opened the door and froze.

The room was definitely no longer being used as storage. Rhodey glanced around in growing disbelief, taking in the crib, a toy chest, a rocking chair and – was that a _changing table_?! All of it sized for an adult, not for a baby. The pacifier in his pocket would have fit right in with it all. He slowly stepped into the room, half-expecting everything to disappear. But no. The rail of the crib was solid wood beneath his hand when he touched it.

“What the fuck?” Rhodey said softly. “Tony? Are you in here?” 

Again, there was no answer. He knew he’d definitely heard the ringing coming from this room, so he took out his phone and hit Tony’s number again. His head whipped around when he heard the ringing, which was much clearer and closer, and he realized that it was coming from the closet. Breathing a sigh of relief, Rhodey darted across the room and threw the closet doors open. 

The first thing that hit him was the number of onesies and brightly colored clothing hanging inside.

The second thing was the unmistakable smell of urine.

The third thing were the scared brown eyes staring up at him.

“Tony?!”


	3. Chapter 3

Tony was squeezed as far back into the closet as he could get, legs drawn up to his chest and shaking hands wrapped around his legs. If it weren’t for the red onesie he was wearing, he would’ve been nearly invisible in the shadows of the closet. As it was, Rhodey couldn’t bring himself to stop staring even though he knew how rude he was being. The sight of his best friend dressed like a baby was a little hard to swallow.

“Go away,” Tony choked out finally, ducking his head. He buried his face in his knees, trembling from head to toe. 

Going away was the last thing Rhodey was planning to do when the fear and adrenaline was only just starting to fade. But he also knew he couldn’t just stand here like an idiot: that was a guaranteed reaction to make a bad situation a hell of a lot worse. Tony didn’t get embarrassed over much, so the fact that he was clearly ashamed meant this wasn’t a joke.

And yeah, that was where Rhodey’s mind had gone first. He couldn’t help it. Pranks had been a big part of his and Tony’s relationship at varying points throughout their lives. Not that long ago, Tony absolutely would’ve dressed up in a onesie just to see if he could freak Rhodey out. But this was too complicated for a prank. Not even Tony would’ve involved the police, never mind Pepper. She would murder him if he had, super soldier boyfriends be damned.

No, there was more to this situation. He glanced against the outfits, freshly washed and neatly strung on hangers. The Malibu mansion had a scaled-back cleaning service when Tony wasn’t there, but even now Rhodey didn’t think Tony had been there long enough to bring the services back up to full speed. It was unlikely that a servant would’ve been around to touch those. And Rhodey was pretty sure that Tony had never hung something on a hanger in his life. So that meant either Steve or Bucky had been the ones to wash and hang up all those outfits. 

This wasn’t just a one-time thing, Rhodey realized slowly. It couldn’t be. He half-turned, looking back at what was undeniably a nursery set up with adult-sized furniture. Now that he wasn’t half-crazed with worry, he noticed that all of the furniture looked brand new. Like it had just been purchased, and even more recently put together. Which made sense, since Tony hadn’t spent time in Malibu mansion since it had been rebuilt.

Rhodey wasn’t really sure of what all this meant, but he did know two things. One, Bucky and Steve were still M.I.A. Two, Tony was now crying quietly into his knees. Actually, make that three things Rhodey knew: he was going to have to be the one to step up and take charge, but he was going to have be very careful about how he did. He had stumbled onto something intensely private here and one wrong move would make Tony shut him out forever.

Luckily, Rhodey had a fair amount of experience when it came to Tony Stark.

He crouched down so that he was on Tony’s level and spoke softly. “Hey. Hey Tones. It’s okay. The police are outside. They caught Romanov and Barton. You’re safe now.”

Tony curled in on himself even tighter, if possible. Rhodey frowned at the reaction. Okay, so that clearly wasn’t what Tony had been worried about. He drummed his fingers on his knee, wondering if his presence really was making the situation worse. But he couldn’t just leave! He had to distract Tony somehow. Get him thinking of something other than what was happening… 

And then he knew.

“JARVIS texted me right before he went offline,” Rhodey went on, and saw Tony twitch. He smiled sadly. Bingo. “I don’t know what they did, but we could go down to the workshop together if you wanted. I bet you could have JARVIS up in no time.”

Tony shifted slightly, letting two big brown eyes peek up at Rhodey. 

“I’ll be right there with you. You’d be safe,” Rhodey added, because he figured that couldn’t hurt.

He could see the moment that Tony’s desire to have JARVIS back won over any confusion or embarrassment that Tony was feeling. Tony sniffed and lifted his head, eyeing Rhodey with a level of suspicious that honestly hurt a little. But Rhodey didn’t let it show. Now wasn’t the time to have that conversation. Instead, he held out his hand and waited for Tony to take it.

Having that small, calloused hand slide into his felt like a win. Rhodey breathed out quietly and stood, gently pulling Tony up with him. That gave him a better look at what Tony was wearing. It was indeed a onesie such as a toddler or baby would wear, complete with what appeared to be snaps around the crotch area. For ease of access? Was this a sexual thing? His confusion increased even as he forced a smile.

“Your workshop is still in the basement here, right?” he said lightly, as though there was absolutely nothing weird about this situation.

“Yeah,” Tony said in a small voice, not meeting Rhodey’s eyes. 

“Great. Let’s go see how fast we can get JARVIS up and running,” Rhodey said, backing out of the closet. Tony slowly followed. His feet were bare and probably freezing, but Rhodey didn’t see any shoes. There weren’t even any in the closet. He hesitated before deciding that cold feet were probably the least of their problems right now and turned towards the door.

They walked out the door and into the hallway. Tony’s steps were shuffling and uneven, but he kept pace well enough. With JARVIS offline, the elevator wasn’t running. So, they took the stairs down to the basement, where the doors to the workshop stood open. Rhodey wondered if maybe Tony had been inside when JARVIS went down, or if he’d been somewhere else in the mansion.

Tony let go of his hand once they reached the workshop and scurried across the floor towards a row of panels. There wasn’t much for Rhodey to do even if he had wanted to help; he had long ago figured out that anything above a certain level of science went way over his head. That was one of the reasons why Tony had been so excited to meet Bruce Banner. Rhodey scowled at the thought and sat down on the couch to keep an eye on what Tony was doing just in case. 

Down here, Tony was in his element and seemed much more comfortable. Once or twice he had to walk past Rhodey to get a tool or something, and again Rhodey caught of a whiff of piss. A niggling suspicion began to build up in the back of his head, especially when he realized that part of what was throwing Tony off was the oddly bowlegged way Tony was walking. The onesie looked puffy around Tony’s waist and crotch. It couldn’t be…

“I think I know what she did,” Tony said quietly, pulling Rhodey’s attention back to him.

“You do? That’s great,” Rhodey said, breathing a near silent sigh of relief. If Romanov had done something permanent to JARVIS, he wasn’t sure what Tony would’ve done to her, but it was safe to say that Romanov never would’ve seen the light of day again.

Tony mumbled something about a server and moved away from the panels, taking a seat at his desk. Rhodey could count on one hand the amount of times he’d seen Tony used an actual keyboard in the past fifteen years. He hadn’t even known that Tony still _owned_ a keyboard, though he supposed it made sense. If for nothing else, Tony would need a way to do updates on JARVIS’s coding when JARVIS was down.

They sat in silence for a little while longer, broken only by the sound of Tony’s fingers against the keys, before Rhodey thought to check his phone. He found several texts from Pepper and winced at the very obvious growing agitation. He’d forgotten about texting her back once he found Tony. He quickly typed up a message and sent it to her, letting her know that Tony was fine.

Well. Sort of fine. He cast a doubtful glance over at Tony. Pepper didn’t need to know the details at this point. This was clearly something that Tony hadn’t even wanted Rhodey to know about, which meant Tony would probably want Pepper to know even less. Or at least, Rhodey hoped that was how Tony would feel. If it came out that Tony hadn’t wanted him to know in particular, that would hurt a lot more than he wanted to admit.

His phone pinged again and Rhodey looked down at it, wincing when he saw that Pepper was not impressed with his lack of communication. But then she sent a message that had Rhodey slumping back against the couch in relief. Steve and Bucky, Pepper had written, had been located, informed of the situation, and were on their way back to the mansion. Fury was meeting Pepper at the police station.

“Hey Tones, guess what!” Rhodey said, lifting his head. “Steve and Bucky are on their way here. They should be back at any moment.” Or that was his hope, anyway. He wasn’t sure what to do with this strangely young, vulnerable Tony Stark.

“Okay,” Tony said, and that was it, which made Rhodey frown because Tony should’ve been over the moon about that. Then Tony hit a button, and the lights overhead flickered. Rhodey tensed.

“Good evening, Sir. Colonel Rhodes,” JARVIS said.

“JARVIS,” Tony whispered.

“Hi JARVIS,” Rhodey said at the same time. “Could you do a scan of the mansion, maybe figure out if it’s been breached in any way?”

“Of course, Colonel,” JARVIS replied. “And may I just say, thank you for coming.”

“No problem,” Rhodey said immediately.

JARVIS was quiet for about a minute, just long enough for Rhodey to wonder what he should do next, before the A.I. said, “Sir, Sergeant Barnes and Captain Rogers have entered the building.”

Tony inhaled sharply and jumped to his feet. Rhodey could only blink and then rush to follow as Tony darted out of the room like Romanov and Barton had materialized in the room. He caught just in time to slip into the elevator before the doors shut. Tony clenched his hands in front of his chest, practically vibrating as he watched the numbers climb. The instant the doors opened, and they saw Bucky standing there, Tony cried out.

“Papa!”

And threw himself into Bucky’s arms. Rhodey’s eyebrows shot up as Bucky scooped Tony off the floor and into a hug so tight that it had to have hurt; Tony started crying and threw his arms around Bucky’s neck, burying his face in Bucky’s shoulder. Bucky glanced at Rhodey and then turned away, quickly carrying Tony down the hallway. Rhodey watched them go, his confusion deepening.

“Jim?”

“Steve,” Rhodey said, belatedly remembering that Steve was there too. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Steve said. He looked as tired and stressed out as Rhodey felt as he added, “You wanna fill me in on what happened? Bucky and I were meeting with Fury. Next thing we knew, a police officer was interrupting our meeting to say that the mansion had been broken into?” His eyes bored into Rhodey, as though he could gather information through sheer strength of will.

“Yeah, I don’t know much more than you do. JARVIS messaged me right before he went offline to say that Romanov and Barton were breaking in. I grabbed Pepper and we came as fast as we could,” Rhodey said, glad to hear that Steve and Bucky hadn’t known what was going on. He’d thought that was the case, but you never knew and too many people had already fucked Tony over.

“Shit,” Steve muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Those assholes. Where are they now?”

“At the police station. I came in to find Tony while Pepper went with the police to handle things on that end,” Rhodey said. “Steve… what’s going on? Why was Tony dressed like that?”

Steve sighed. “It’s not really my place to say. Tony should be having that conversation with you, not me.”

Rhodey frowned, because that was fair, but – “Tony’s okay, right?”

“He was,” Steve said grimly. “And for Romanov’s and Barton’s sake, I hope that he still is.”


	4. Chapter 4

“I have to go down to the police station.”

Rhodey glanced up from where he’d been staring into his mug of tea, which was slowly going cold. “Pepper needs you?”

Steve nodded, standing up and dumping his untouched tea into the sink. “Fury is there too. She wants back-up.”

“Was he a part of this?” Rhodey asked, sitting up straight. Anger burned a cold knot in his chest. He hadn’t thought that Fury might have been a distraction, but in retrospect he could see that it would have made sense. Fury could have been in on it, or Barton and Romanov could have found out and taken advantage of the timing. Either scenario was plausible at this point.

“We don’t know yet. I plan to find out,” Steve said, his expression darkening. With his jaw set and his eyes blazing like that, Rhodey didn’t envy anyone who tried to get in Steve’s way. He looked about as willing to punch someone in the face as he was to talk things out with people.

It gave Rhodey a dark sense of satisfaction to see that rage be expressed on Tony’s behalf. Too many people had taken Tony Stark for granted over the years. It was about time that someone stood up for Tony. The last of Rhodey’s already minimal doubts over Steve and Bucky were diminishing by the moment. Perhaps Tony had finally caught a break when it came to these two.

“Do you want to come with me, or would you prefer to stay here?” Steve asked, turning to Rhodey.

“As much as I want to see SHIELD go down in flames, I think I better stay here. Whenever Tony decides that he wants to talk, I want to be here,” Rhodey replied. It had been well over an hour, but neither Bucky nor Tony had come back downstairs. Worry was gnawing a hole in Rhodey’s gut. 

“Right,” Steve said with a nod, then paused. “Jim, I know that you’re Tony’s best friend and that I have no right to tell you how to act around him, but… please be careful. Tony didn’t hide this from you because he wanted to. He just didn’t know how to tell you. It was private. Just between him, me and Bucky. And he’s sensitive about this after everything that happened. One wrong word and it’ll destroy him.”

Rhodey’s first instinct was to snap that he had been friends with Tony for years, and that he was the foremost expert on all things Tony Stark, thank you very much. A cooler head prevailed when he caught sight of the genuine concern in Steve’s expression, and he realized that Steve wasn’t saying this out of cruelty or a desire to be mean or even spiteful. He was saying it because he worried.

He looked at Steve for a moment, thinking about what had happened – how SHIELD and the Avengers had left Tony to deal with two supersoldier children all on his own. That alone would have been incredibly stressful for anyone, but Tony had never been around kids before. He liked them, but he didn’t really know how to handle them. Rhodey wasn’t wholly sure how what he’d witnessed tonight fit into everything, but clearly Steve seemed to think that it worsened an already bad situation. 

“I’ll be careful,” Rhodey promised. “Tony’s my friend, Steve. My best friend. I would never do anything to hurt him.”

“I know, but Tony – he’s so easy to hurt,” Steve said. He looked both wistful and pensive, as though remembering a time when he had inadvertently hurt Tony. Rhodey knew exactly what he was talking about. He wouldn’t have hurt Tony on purpose for anything, but Steve was right. It was too easy to hurt Tony sometimes, especially when you were as close to him as Rhodey or Steve were.

“I won’t hurt him,” Rhodey said firmly, getting to his feet. “Now get out of here, Rogers! I’m depending on you to rake those assholes over the coals. Don’t make me regret sending you in my stead.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t,” Steve said with a grim smile, striding out of the room. Rhodey listened to the sounds of him leaving, then looked around the room.

With nothing else to do, he emptied his own cup into the sink and then washed and dried both mugs. Then he wandered out into the hallway. JARVIS had performed a scan of the mansion and verified that Barton and Romanov hadn’t managed to enter, but Rhodey still felt restless and uneasy. He started walking around the first floor, checking the windows and rooms to make sure that nothing looked out of place. He had just reached the living room and was inspecting the bay window when a throat was cleared behind him.

Damned supersoldiers and their ability to move around soundlessly. Rhodey swung around, heart thudding against his ribs, to find Bucky standing in the doorway. Bucky’s arms were crossed over his chest. The two men stared at each other for a moment in silence, just sizing each other up. Rhodey didn’t know Bucky as well as he knew Steve, and the expression on Bucky’s face made the hair on the back of Rhodey’s neck prickle with unease.

Finally, Bucky broke the silence. “I think Tony is ready to talk. But –”

“I know, I know. Be careful and don’t hurt him,” Rhodey said, suddenly more amused than anything. “I already talked to Steve about this.”

“Fine. I’ll be in the kitchen making us all something to eat,” Bucky said, and the pointed look he gave as he turned and left strongly suggested that poison might accidentally make its way into Rhodey’s portion if Rhodey wasn’t careful. At that moment, it wasn’t so hard to see how Bucky had been the Winter Soldier.

As Bucky stepped aside, Tony appeared in the doorway. He was staring at the floor, unwilling or unable to meet Rhodey’s eyes. He was now dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, both of which looked too big for him. Rhodey strongly suspected that the clothing belonged to either Steve or Bucky – probably Steve, based on the way the jeans had been rolled up to keep them from dragging on the floor. They had to have been held up by a belt, not that Rhodey could see it beneath the baggy sweatshirt.

“Hi,” Rhodey said softly, deciding that it was as good a place to start as any. It was a little uncomfortable to see Tony looking so small and vulnerable, standing there with his arms wrapped around his waist and his head lowered, shoulders slumped.

Honestly, he hadn’t seen Tony look anything like this since their college days. Back then, Tony Stark had been a tiny force of wonder. Seemingly unaffected by the fact that he was attending school with people years older than him, Tony hadn’t let anything stop him. He’d thrown himself into life at MIT whole-heartedly, and had gotten himself into some pretty tough situations that he’d just barely squeaked out of before he and Rhodey became friends.

Rhodey had never expected to take a teenager under his wing in his second year at MIT, but it had happened, and he’d never looked back. Tony had needed someone, and Rhodey just so happened to be that someone. As a result, Tony had quickly become the little brother he’d never had. There was nothing that could change that now. But looking at Tony, he suddenly realized that he wasn’t sure if _Tony_ knew that. 

“Hi,” Tony said finally, his voice very soft.

“Are you okay?” Rhodey asked, deciding to get the most important question out of the way first. Aside from this strange new vulnerability, Tony looked okay. But that didn’t always mean much.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Neither of them got in,” Tony said to his feet, not lifting his head. “I, uh, I wanted to, uh, apologize.”

Rhodey blinked. “What?”

“JARVIS shouldn’t have called you,” Tony went on. “He was under strict instructions not to let anyone else into the mansion. He panicked, but –”

“Whoa, hey,” Rhodey interrupted, holding up a hand. Any thoughts of letting Tony have his say first were flying right out the window. “Tony, I’m _glad_ that JARVIS called me. You were here all by yourself and two fucking assassins were trying to break in! That’s not a situation anyone should have to handle alone, superhero or not.”

“But you saw –” Tony stopped, then visibly seemed to gather himself together. “You saw me. Like that.”

“Like what?” Rhodey asked as gently as he could. He still didn’t understand what was going on.

“Have you ever heard of age play?” Tony asked.

Age play. The words rang a very faint bell in Rhodey’s memory but try as he might it didn’t really mean anything. He shook his head, but of course Tony still wasn’t looking at him and so missed the response. 

“No, I haven’t,” he said out loud.

“It’s when one person acts like a child,” Tony mumbled, wringing his hands together. “They go into a headspace where they are a child, sort of. And sometimes, but not always, that one person has another person who acts like their parent… or parents.”

It was a meagre explanation at best, but it was more than enough for Rhodey to put all of the puzzle pieces together. Tony, Bucky and Steve age played on what must have been a fairly regular basis, given the nursery in the mansion. They wouldn’t go through all the effort and expense of outfitting that room just for a one-off. No, this was something that they did frequently and which all of them enjoyed.

That was why Tony had been wearing the onesie and the diaper – and from that, Rhodey guessed that _child_ probably wasn’t the appropriate word. Toddler, or maybe even baby, would be more accurate, but those were words that Tony couldn’t bring himself to say right now. Tony must have been in that headspace when JARVIS got shut down. He wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept of headspaces, having dabbled into some BDSM. If an age play headspace was anything like a sub’s headspace, it wasn’t always that easy to escape at the drop of a hat.

Though that did make him wonder why Steve and Bucky had left if Tony was in that headspace, Rhodey set that aside for now and instead continued to think about how hard this whole situation would have been on Tony. Taking care of two school-aged supersoldiers was hard enough without adding age play into the mix. Tony had been left without the support of the only two people who knew what he was really going through.

That realization only fanned the flames of Rhodey’s rage towards SHIELD, but again he forced himself to put that aside. He would hopefully get the opportunity to punch someone later, but right now the only person in the room with him was the only person who was innocent in all of this. He knew Tony well enough to know that Tony would assume any show of anger was directed at _him_ , not at the situation.

So Rhodey took a deep, controlled breath and said, “Is that what you, Bucky and Steve do?”

Tony flinched at the sound of his voice but nodded. “Yeah. I, um, had a really hard time taking care of Steve and Bucky because, well. I’m used to being the one who gets taken care of. So that’s why we’re here. So I could rest.”

“I see,” Rhodey murmured, knowing there was way more to the story. “Can I give you a hug?”

Tony looked up for the first time, eyes wide in surprise. “You – really?”

“If you’re okay with it,” Rhodey said, keeping his distance for the moment.

“You… you don’t think it’s too weird?” Tony asked, biting his lip as soon as the question was out, and ah. Suddenly Rhodey understood.

It hurt to think that Tony hadn’t trusted him with this, but Rhodey tried not to dwell on that. He was not owed any information on Tony’s life, after all. They were best friends of course, but it made sense that there were private things that Tony would only share with his partners. If it weren’t for Romanov and Barton, Rhodey suspected that Tony never would have told him. He’d have to find a way to make peace with that, but now wasn’t the time.

“Tony, you are the weirdest person I know,” Rhodey said. “But I assure you, that has everything to do with the fact that you actually like to put orange juice and marshmallow fluff in your cereal, not this.”

A small smile flashed across Tony’s face. “Bucky thinks that’s weird too. I tried to get him to try it and he said he’d rather shave his head.”

“Bucky has good taste,” Rhodey said dryly. “So… hug?”

Tony gave an uncertain nod but didn’t move. Realizing that he would have to be the one to go to Tony, and more than willing to do just that, Rhodey slowly closed the distance between them. He kept his arms outstretched, giving Tony plenty of time to change his mind and duck away, but Tony stayed perfectly still. So Rhodey carefully wrapped his arms around his best friend, holding his breath for that beat of tension – 

And then Tony melted into the hug, a bitten-off sound escaping him as his hands came up to clutch at the back of Rhodey’s shirt. Rhodey closed his eyes out of pure relief, pulling Tony a bit closer and settling his arms around Tony more snugly. There was no space between them now, and Rhodey had lost count of how many times he’d hugged Tony Stark over the years but it had never been quite like this, with Tony’s head on his shoulder and a slight, overwhelmed tremble to Tony’s too-thin frame.

“You’re my little brother,” Rhodey murmured, resting his chin atop Tony’s head. “There’s nothing you could do that would be too weird for me, Tones. _Nothing_. And I hope you know that I would never judge you for something like this, or leave you – if it makes you happy, and it’s good for you, I’ll never be anything but supportive.”

The last of the tension drained out of Tony and he tightened his grip on the back of Rhodey’s shirt as he whispered, “I – I did know that. I think. It’s just – I didn’t hide it because of you, Honeybear. This was just – it was _private_.” There was a thin wobble in his voice that broke Rhodey’s heart.

Because when you grew up in the eye of the public like Tony had, you didn’t get to have the luxury of privacy. Every single one of Tony’s youthful indiscretions had been thoroughly covered in first the newspapers and later by the internet. After Afghanistan, Tony had seemed to embrace that way of life. Angered by Stane and all the bullshit that Stane had pulled behind the scenes, Tony had striven for transparency when it came to both Stark Industries and his activities as Iron Man.

It made sense that Tony would want something so intimate to be just between him and his partners, and Rhodey had to wonder what had happened that had caused Tony to open up in the first place. He had the feeling he would never find out, but he was okay with that. He let go of his earlier sense of hurt, because it had no place here, and instead hugged Tony a bit tighter.

“I totally get it,” Rhodey said, meaning it. “I’m not mad. I’m just so goddamn glad that you’re okay.”

“Thanks for coming,” Tony said softly. Rhodey thought he might be crying, and that made his chest hurt. Tony deserved so much more than little he’d received over the years.

“I’ll always come,” Rhodey promised. Movement over Tony’s shoulder caught his eye and he realized that Bucky was standing there, watching them. Bucky didn’t look ashamed to be found eavesdropping. Instead, he met Rhodey’s eye and gave an approving nod. 

Rhodey nodded back, just once. At one time he would’ve snorted and said he didn’t need the approval of any of Tony’s boyfriends, but now he realized he was wrong. Because Steve and Bucky weren’t just Tony’s boyfriends, they were his _partners_ in every sense of the word. And that mattered a lot, because they were one of the few people who were standing firmly at Tony’s side.

He watched Bucky duck back into the kitchen and let out a shuddery sigh. He had come precariously close to losing Tony tonight. He didn’t know what was going to happen to Barton and Romanov, but it would be a fraction of what they deserved. Regardless of whether they went to prison or not, Rhodey was now even more sure of one thing. They, and SHIELD, would never again get the chance to touch Tony Stark.

He was going to do whatever it took to make sure of that.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


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